Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Diobol
| Issuer | Paphos |
|---|---|
| Year | 500 BC - 480 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Round (irregular) |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Bull standing to the left in the field, rendered in profile with careful attention to musculature and form characteristic of early Cypriot coinage. A small pellet or annulet appears above the animal's back. The surface displays the typical granular texture of early fifth-century BC Cypriot silver issues. No legend is present, consistent with the archaic period coinage of Paphos. The style reflects the strong Phoenician and Near Eastern artistic influences prevalent in the region during this period. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Paphos was one of the dominant minting authorities in archaic Cyprus, operating under the cultural and political pull of both the Achaemenid Persian empire — which controlled Cyprus from around 525 BC — and the deeply entrenched Phoenician trading networks that ran through the island. Coinage from this mint during this window reflects that tension directly: a local dynastic authority issuing its own silver while nominally subordinate to Persepolis.
Cypriot diobols of this period are rarely found outside hoards, and attribution to specific Paphian dynasts remains contested among specialists due to overlapping iconographic conventions shared across the island's city-kingdoms.